A Grain Of Saul: Dear Donald Trump, The America You Described Doesn’t Actually Exist

Lies, lies, and more scary lies.

A Grain of Saul is a weekly column that digs into some of the biggest issues we face as a nation and as an international community in search of reliable data, realistic solutions, and — most importantly — hope.

Dear Donald Trump,

"How stupid is our country?" you angrily asked a room full of Americans at the presidential debate on Sunday night.

The answer, Mr. Trump, is not very stupid. The United States is home to eight of the 10 best global universities, has been at the forefront of some of the world's greatest medical advancements, and promotes free thinking in a way that few countries can match. Maybe that's not the America you experienced growing up, but it's certainly the one I see.

Throughout the presidential debate, though, you made your understanding of America quite clear: we're losers. We're stupid. Our economy is failing. Crime is out of control. A presidential nominee laughed about a 12-year-old being raped. Locker room talk is joking about sexual assault. Taxes are too high. And you, Mr. Trump, are the only one with a winning temperament that is good enough to fix it.

Well, I've got some news for you, Donald. America isn't a bunch of losers. Our economy isn't failing, our streets are not burning to the ground, and you have to lie and lie and lie in order to say otherwise. Throughout the debate, you lied about so many scary things just so you could say something negative about America, just so you could gain support from Americans who are unhappy and scared. So below, I've corrected those lies for you in order to remind every American just how lucky they are to be in this great country.

"You look at Charlotte. You look at Baltimore. You look at the violence that's taking place in the inner cities, Chicago, you take a look at Washington, D.C. We have an increase in murder within our cities, the biggest in 45 years."

Similarly, the increased murder and violent crime rates are largely driven by a select few cities. Your scary words are working, though, I have to give you that: 61 percent of Americans believe crime has gotten worse over the last 10 years, even though the data tells us the complete opposite.

"I did try and fuck her. She was married," you told Access Hollywood anchor Billy Bush, recalling a woman you tried to sleep with.

You go on to describe how you moved on her "very heavily" before you and Bush notice actress Arianne Zucker outside your bus, waiting to escort you onto the set of a soap opera for a cameo. You, who married your wife Melania three months before, then say that you plan to eat a Tic Tac in case you and Zucker "start kissing."

"You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait … And when you're a star they let you do it," you said. "You can do anything."

"Whatever you want," says Bush.

"Grab them by the pussy," you said. "You can do anything."

These are the comments you said constitute "locker room talk." In other words, you're telling women in America that these are the conversations American men have in private. That suggestions of non-consensual sexual interactions are commonplace in locker rooms across America. But it isn't. And you, Donald, should have never said it was.

"Many of her friends took bigger deductions. Warren Buffett took a massive deduction."

This is how you defended claiming a nearly $1 billion write-off in losses and seemingly avoided paying federal taxes for the next 18 years. Well, it turns out you were wrong about Warren Buffett: he pays federal income taxes. In fact, according to Buffett, he's paid federal income taxes every year since 1944, paid $2.8 billion in charitable contributions last year, and $1.8 million in federal income taxes.

"But I don't want to have — with all the problems this country has and all of the problems that you see going on — hundreds of thousands of people coming in from Syria when we know nothing about them."

Throughout your campaign, Donald, you keep claiming that hundreds of thousands of dangerous people are pouring into our country. But that just isn't true.

First of all, America has only allowed 13,000 Syrian refugees into the country. That's 13,000 of the more than 470,000 that still need homes and the more than 5 million that have been displaced. You also ignore that comparatively, 13,000 is a really low number when put next to other countries — such as Germany — who are taking far more. You also completely ignore the fact that we know a lot about them, not "nothing."

You said "many people saw the bombs" at the home of the San Bernardino shooters, and have continually accused Muslim neighbors of not reporting them. But nobody saw any bombs, just one neighbor who told one news station he noticed they received a lot of packages.

You, Mr. Trump, have done everything you can to scare Americans. You have tried to convince us that our country is in ruins, when it isn't. You've tried to tell us that your opponent is the devil, when she isn't.

You've tried to convince us that the only person to fix this country is you, but you aren't.